Measuring livelihoods’ sustainability of aquacultural farmers in the lagoons of Thua Thien Hue province

Abstract

This study evaluates the livelihoods’ sustainability of aquaculture farmers in the lagoons of ​​Thua Thien Hue province. The study identified four criteria measuring livelihoods’ sustainability, namely economic criteria, social criteria, environmental criteria, and policy criteria with 28 indicators. The Consistency Ratio of the specialized farming group, the intercropping group, and the cage fish group is 0.021–0.097, 0.014–0.055, and 0.019–0.077, respectively. The index reflecting the measure of livelihoods’ sustainability for the groups above is 0.462, 0.508, and 0.446, respectively, with the general index of 4.71. The extent of livelihoods’ sustainability by households is as follows: relatively sustainable (42.3%), slightly sustainable (38.14%), sufficiently sustainable (17.8%), and unsustainable (1.69%). The Analytic Hierarchy Process method indicates that the intercropping households have the best potential to develop livelihoods’ sustainability. It is necessary to invest in developing the mixed aquaculture model to ensure the sustainability of the lagoon fisheries development system of Thua Thien Hue province.